Don't Forget to Eat Your Glyphosate.

I was reading an article regarding Glyphosate, a non-selective herbicide, meaning it kills almost all plants; it is absorbed through the leaves and spreads throughout the plant, including the roots and seeds. Glyphosate is systemic; it can’t be washed off because it’s inside the plant. According to the National Pesticide Information Center maintained by the University of Oregon, glyphosate kills by preventing the plant from making proteins needed for growth; it stops an enzyme pathway, the shikimic acid pathway, which is found only in plants and some microorganisms; therefore, glyphosate not only kills plants but also microorganisms.

The ability of glyphosate to kill microorganisms can also affect animals that eat the plants.When the animals eat the genetically engineered crops that have been treated with glyphosate-containing Roundup, the animals’ beneficial gut bacteria are killed, thereby removing the natural resistance to toxins such as botulism. The levels of glyphosate currently permitted in feed are high enough to kill normal biological control organisms such as lactobacillus and alcaligenes. Therefore, feeding foods made with Roundup Ready crops to infants could be especially risky because infants don’t yet have full intestinal gut bacteria.

What concerns me the most about glyphosate are the serious and significant health threats to humans and animals caused by exposure to glyphosate and Roundup Ready crops. Glyphosate causes “reproductive failure, infertility, as well as miscarriage for cattle, horses, pigs, sheep, and poultry.”  Further, since the effect covers so many animal species, it is also likely to affect humans the same way, and there is evidence that infertility in humans is steadily increasing.

Other studies have shown premature aging in animals; cows at two and a half years old have been downgraded at market to a ten-year-old cow. A study published in 2010 showed evidence that pregnant women exposed to glyphosate have babies with “congenital malformations, including microcephaly, anencephaly, and cranial malformations. In addition, both glyphosate and the commercial herbicide severely affect embyonic and placental cells, producing mitochondrial damage, necrosis, and programmed cell death . . . with doses far below those used in agriculture.

With so much damage to plants, animals, and humans it's clear that we can't wait for the government, lobbyist, and food manufacturers to do what is right for us. We must support only those farmers, retailers, and restaurants that sell the highest quality natural and organic food available. This will drive change in how our foods are produced and sold.